Educational Simulator for Trasesophageal Echocardiography

Abstract

An educational simulator for transesophageal echocardiography device, which includes a human phantom patterned after a human upper body having a neck, an esophagus and a stomach which communicate with each other, and a heart, a dummy probe which is patterned after a genuine ultrasonic probe and of which the tip is embedded with a magnet, a sensor which detects the insertion length and rotation angle of the dummy probe and is placed in the said neck, magnetic sensors which sense the magnetism of the said magnet, a three-dimensional image data archive which stores three-dimensional image data of echocardiography, a CPU which calculates the position, inclination and direction of the dummy probe on the basis of information from each said sensor and clips tomographic image data from the three-dimensional image data on the basis of the calculation, and a display section which shows the clipped tomographic image data as two-dimensional images.

1 . An educational simulator for transesophageal echocardiography comprising:
 a human phantom in a chassis patterned after a human upper body wherein a neck communicating with the outside through a palate, an esophagus communicating with the neck and a stomach communicating with the esophagus are fixed at prescribed positions;   a dummy probe patterned after a genuine esophageal ultrasonic probe and comprising a sheath-shaped acral portion having a nearly spherical tip, a bending portion which is free to curve and communicates with the acral portion, a flexural tube portion which is flexible and communicates with the bending portion, and a manipulating portion which communicates with the flexural tube portion and is provided with a changeover switch for changing over the tomographic direction of an artificial heart together with a manipulating knob for controlling the curving direction of the bending portion;   an insertion length sensor which is placed in the said neck and detects the insertion length from the neck of the said dummy probe inserted into the said esophagus, and a rotation angle sensor which detects the rotation angle of the said flexural tube portion in the neck;   a position sensor which detects the position of the tip of the said dummy probe;   a bending angle sensor which detects the bending angle of the said bending portion;   a three-dimensional image data archive which stores transesophageal echocardiographic three-dimensional image data;   a CPU which calculates the position and inclination of the acral portion of the said dummy probe in relation to the artificial heart in the said human phantom from the information on the said insertion length, the information on the said rotation angle, the information on the said position of the tip and the information on the said bending angle and which clips tomographic image data out of the said three-dimensional image data, after calculating the position, inclination and direction of the tomographic view of the said three-dimensional image data from the results of the said calculation and the tomographic directional information on the said artificial heart; and   a display section which shows the said clipped tomographic image data as two-dimensional images.   
   
   
       2 . The educational simulator for transesophageal echocardiography as defined in  claim 1 , wherein the said echocardiographic three-dimensional image data are echocardiographic three-dimensional real image data and/or echocardiographic three-dimensional virtual image data, and the said two-dimensional images shown on the said display section are two-dimensional images on the basis of the said three-dimensional real image data and/or the said three-dimensional virtual image data, or three-dimensional image data in which the three-dimensional real image data and the three-dimensional virtual image data are superimposed, and the said display section shows the heart as if it pulsates continuously, by repeatedly showing time-series data on one or several beats of the heart. 
   
   
       3 . The educational simulator for transesophageal echocardiography as defined in  claim 1 , wherein the said human phantom is equipped with a heart which is fixed to a prescribed position in the said chassis, and the said chassis, said palate, said neck, said esophagus, said stomach and said heart connecting with diverse blood vessels are formed of transparent or translucent materials. 
   
   
       4 . The educational simulator for transesophageal echocardiography as defined in  claim 3 , wherein the said palate, said neck and said esophagus are formed of flexible materials. 
   
   
       5 . The educational simulator for transesophageal echocardiography as defined in  claim 1 , wherein the said insertion length sensor and said rotation angle sensor comprise a light emitting element, and a light receiving element which receives the reflected light on the surface of the said dummy probe of the light emitted from the said light emitting element, and the insertion length and rotation angle of the said artificial probe are detected according to variation in the pattern of the surface of the said dummy probe sensed by the said light receiving element, and wherein the said position sensor comprises a magnet embedded in the said acral portion and magnetic sensors fixed to the respective parts on the outside of the said esophagus and said stomach, and the position of the tip of the said acral portion is detected by the magnetic sensors sensing magnetism of the said magnet, and wherein the said bending angle sensor comprises two wire ropes inserted into the said dummy probe, with one end of the said wire ropes fixed to the tip of the said bending portion and with the other end of the said wire ropes extended to the inside of the said manipulating portion, and the bending angle of the said bending portion is detected according to the difference in length inside the said manipulating portion between the two wire ropes. 
   
   
       6 . The educational simulator for transesophageal echocardiography as defined in  claim 5 , wherein the acral portion of the said dummy probe is embedded with a laser diode and a cylindrical lens placed on the front face of the light emitting portion of the laser diode, and the said manipulating portion is embedded with a servomotor so that a laser beam emitted from the said laser diode is diffused to a crossbar shape by the said cylindrical lens, and the said servomotor turns the said cylindrical lens parallel to the light emitting portion of the said laser diode in conjunction with the actuation of the said changeover switch so as to change over the direction of the said crossbar-shaped laser beam continuously.